Platen printing-press.



m, 717,142. ""Fa'tented DELL-130, 1-90-2 11 J. momsou; I

PLATEN PRINTING PRESS.

(Application filed Apr. 23, 1902.) .(No Model.) 2 Sheets-Sheet I.

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IHWIIIII v No. 7:7.142'.

Uivirnp STATE JOHN THOMSON, OF BROOKLYN, NEW

PATENT OFFICE.

YORK, ASSIGNOR TO JOHN THOMSON PRESS COMPANY, OF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY, AND NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A CORPORATION OF NEXV JERSEY.

PLATEN PRINTING-PRESS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 717,142, dated December 30, 1902.

Original application filed March 8, 1902. Serial No. 97,348. No.104,3 83.

To to whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN THOMSON, a citizen of the United States, residing at Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Platen Printing-Presses, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to improvements in mechanisms for platen printing-presses, and

I0 has for its object to increase the eflieiency, speed, and endurance of such presses and to decrease the liability to accidental damage; and to these ends the invention consists in the various features of construction and arrangement of parts having the general mode of operation substantiallyas hereinafter more particularly pointed out.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a left-hand side elevation showing sufficient of a press to illustrate the particular features of invention. Fig. 2 is'an enlarged sectionalview of the platen and its support. Fig. 3 is a detail horizontal section of a portion of the platenears and attachments. Fig. 4 is a vertical part section of the same. Fig. 5 is a detached view of a modification, and Fig. 6 a horizontal detached sectional View of the same.

lNhile my improvements are capable of use in connection with many and various styles of press and many and various details of construction and operation, it is more particularly adapted for use in connection with what is known on the market under the trade name of a .Oolts Armory Press and which embodies the general features of construction and arrangement shown in Patents No. 372,993, granted November 8, 1887; No. 427,450, granted May 6, 1890, and No. 428,182, granted May 20, 1890. The subject-matter 0 of the present case was originally shown and embodied in my application, Serial No. 97,348, filed March 8, 1902, of which application the present is a division.

The presentinvention relates more particularly to the construction and arrangement of parts, including the platen and its connections, and I have shown it embodied in connection with a platen having the general c011- Divided and this application filed April 23,1902. Serial (No model.)

struction and mode of operation more particularly set forth in my Patent No. 372,993. It will be understood that under this patent and as shown herein the platen action has two distinct phases during each complete rotation of the actuating-gear 9-one to roll, as by the rockers 10, upon the rocker-seats 12, and the other to slide upon the fiat bearingsurface 13 to and from the form, all as more fully set forth in said prior patent.

The platen D is provided with lugs 14: 15, and these are shown as separable pieces having grooves 16 in their inner faces, provided with tapering sides 17, and there is a bolt 18, provided with a tapering head 19, fitting the tapering grooves in the lugs, and the bolt is made adjustable by any suitable means, as the nut 20. It will be seen that by properly adjusting the nuts 20 the degree of tension or friction between the tapering surfaces of the grooves in the lugs and the heads of the bolts can be adjusted to any desired degree. It is understoodthat theselugs on the platen engage the outer ends 21 of the rocker-seats above and below while the platenis being slid to or from the printing surface or bed B. The object, as is well known,'is to cause the face D of the platen D to impinge squarely upon the printing surface or form supported on the bed B. In the event, however, of the form being improperly disposed above or below the center line of stress (indicated by the line 01) or of an obstruction being accidentallyinterposed above or below this median line then an exceedingly heavy strain is imposed upon the guide-lugs 14' and 15, and the usual result is to fracture the rocker-seats, the frame of the press, the guide-lugs, or a combination of some of these elements. In previous practies the guide-lugs 14 and 15 have been cast upon and formed as a part of the ears 'D of the platen D. In the present construction the guide-lugs 1a and 15 are formed separately and are so connected with the ears, by means of the adjustable wedge-shaped con nections, that by the proper manipulation or adjustment of the bolts or equivalent devices almost any desired frictional resistance to platen-ears can be obtained. Hence by simply adjusting the lugs so that they will slide up or down, as the case may be, under a pressure well within the breaking strain of the rocker-seats or other parts all damage to these parts is avoided. Moreover, in the event of the lugs being shifted by accident or otherwise they can readily bereset and are also adjustable for compensating for wear on the rocker-seats. From this construction it will be seen that in case of an excess of pressure above the center of the platen, as indicated by arrow d, which tends to deflect the face of the platen out of its proper plane, (indicated by the line 61 it is transmitted to the upper lug 14, tending to shift it upwardly, while an excess of pressure below the center (indicated by the arrow (1 will be transmitted to the lower lug 15, tending to force it downwardly. By properly adjusting the friction between the inclined faces 'of the lugs and the faces of the holding devices, as the bolt-heads 19, the proper and desired frictional resistance to these movements just described can be obtained, and still the parts will be allowed to give or slide before the breaking strain is reached.

In Figs. 5 and 6 I have illustrated a modified form of lugs 14 and 15, in which instead of being grooved and provided with a tapering groove they are formed wedge-shaped in cross-section, as best shown in Fig. 6, and they are adapted to grooves 22, formed in the ears I) of the platen, and these grooves have tapering sides 23, corresponding to the taper of the lug. In this construction I use some suitable adjusting device, shown in the form of threaded bolts 23, preferably provided with jam-nuts 24, and the ends of these bolts impinge against the backs of the wedge-shaped lugs 14 and 15, so that the thrust of the bolts tends to force the tapering surfaces of the lugs and the bearings in the platen-ears together, and it will be apparent that, as before, by the proper manipulation of these thrustbolts any desired frictional resistance to the movement of the lugs 14 and 15 in the grooves 22 may be obtained. These modifications show how the general principles of my invention can be modified to adapt its use for any desired purpose without materially departing from my invention.

It will be understood, as before stated, that the platen D is directly operated in the manner above described through power derived from the actuating-gear 9 and usually through connecting-rods C, only one of which is shown in the drawings. In presses of this character it is frequently necessary to so adjust the parts that the face D of the platen D shall be back of the usual type-high printing position to an extent not practicable by use of the usual eccentric adjusting means commonly employed and indicated by the eccentric sleeve 0 on the bearing surface or journal D of the platen D. In order to accomplish this, the means heretofore chiefly employed when the platens are solid without adjustable platen-bolts, as shown in the present case, is primarily to plane the platen-face back of the type-high standards the desired amount, usually one-eighth to three-sixteenths of an inch, and then apply a groundsteel plate, which plate is used for type-high work and removed when additional space between the platen and. bed is requiredas for stamping or inlaying bookcovers, for instance. This method is expensive, and as there are three surfaces to deal with instead of one it is quite impracticable to obtain the same degree of accuracy when combining the three surfaces as in the use of one. In order to avoid this construction and obtain the desired results as to accuracy of operation and reduced cost of construction, the connectingrods 0 are arranged so as to give'the required amount of adj ustment to accomplish the above results. Thus, as best shown in Fig. 1, there is applied a sleeve 1 to the crank-pin eye 2 of the connecting-rod O, and the inner bore 3 of the sleeve is eccentric to its periphery, and the crank-pin 8, connected to the gear 9, fits this inner bore directly and operates therein. This sleeve 1 is provided with two keyways 4 5, preferably on the line of dead-centers, as shown, and there is one corresponding keyway 6 formed in the inner side of the eye of the connecting-rod. Then by the use of a single key or spline 7 the sleeve 1 can be securely locked against rotation, and the connecting-rod is not weakened. Thus in the position shown the effective length of the connecting-rod C may be fixedly increased or decreased the space between the lines o c, and in either of these positions the adjustable eccentric O of the platen may be utilized for slighter adjustments or for throwing off the impression in the well-known way. To facilitate the shifting of the sleeve 1 Without having to remove the connecting-rod C from the press, one or two holes 1 are drilled or tapped through the sleeve 1, so that by inserting a threaded bolt its point will impinge against the surface of the gear-wheel 9 and back out the sleeve, when by turning it half a rotation and reinserting it the desired fixed change of centers is accomplished, the single key 7 locking the sleeve 1 in either of its fixed positions.

What I claim is 1. The combination with a platen adapted to slide to and from printing position and with the seats upon which it operates, of guide-lugs and guides therefor, and means for adjustably securing them, substantially as described, whereby should an excess of pressure be applied above or below the horizontal center of the platen the said lugs will be caused to move substantially in the manner set forth.

2. The combination with a platen, of guidelugs having tapering surfaces, and threaded bolts for adj ustably securing the guide-lugs to the platen, whereby the lugs may be frictionally held and yield to excessive pressure, substantially as described.

3. In a platen printing-press, the combination with the platen, connecting-rod, and actuating-crank therefor, of an eccentric sleeve mounted in the crank-pin eye of the rod, and means for locking said sleeve against rotation in two predetermined positions of least and greatest throw, the said sleeve having a threaded hole through the edge thereof, substantially as described.

4. In a platen printing-press, the combination with the platen, connecting-rod, and actuating-crank therefor, of an eccentric sleeve JOHN THOMSON.

Witnesses:

JOHN M. KINNON, SAMUEL H. WEBB. 

